Material crusher for heating kettle



Dec. 26, 1961 E. B. MORAN MATERIAL CRUSHER FOR HEATING KETTLEI Filed May 29, 1959 all/1 i 1 u Ohio Filed May 29, 1959, Ser. No. 816,855

2 Claims. (Cl. 241-280) This invention resides in the provision of means to crush material as it is fed into a kettle for heating it.

Kettles have been used for heating and melting down various kinds of materials to be applied to roads. In recent years blocks of thermoplastic materials have been melted down in kettles and then applied to road surfaces to define center lines, cross walks and similar markings. The thermoplastic material used comes in fairly large, thick blocks which do not melt down readily. It has been the practice to assign one man to break these blocks up with a mallet before they are dumped into the heating kettle; This has proved tiring, time-consuming and uneconomical.

Accordingly, a very important object of this invention is to provide means which will break or crush the thermoplastic material as it is added to the kettle so that it will not be necessary to employ additional personnel for this purpose.

Another important object of the invention is to provide crushing means which make use of the now standard rocking agitator means for the kettle so that the arrangement is very economical to put into practice.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art during the course of the following description and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which drawings like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGURE 1 is a top plan view of a heating kettle having agitating means provided therefor and including the material breaking and crushing means of the instant invention,

1 FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary end view, with parts omitted, showing the means for operating the agitator shaft which is also used in connection with the breaking and crushing means,

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary sectional view, with parts broken away,'showing one position of the breaking and crushing means, and

FIGURE 6 is a view generally similar to that of FIG- URE 5 but showing the parts in a different position.

The invention is shown as incorporated with a heating kettle generally indicated at 10 and including the end plates 11 and side plates 12. Suitably journaled in bearings I3 is the agitator shaft 14. The shaft 14 is oscillated intermittently in opposite directions by means of a vertically reciprocable piston rod 15 which is attached to a'connecting link 16 fixed on the shaft 14. It will be understood that the rod 15 is reciprocated vertically by means including the cylinder 17. The means so far described are conventional and it is believed that their construction and operation will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.

Fixed on the agitator shaft 14 is a member 18 to which the agitating blade 19 is attached. As the shaft 14 is oscillated back and forth the blade 19 will do likewise and agitate the material in the bottom of the heating tank It The means for supplying heat to the bottom of the kettle 1d are not shown as they do not constitute a part of the instant invention as such and because such means are conventional and well known in the art.

As above noted, the function of the mechanism of the instant invention is to break up the chunks of thermoplastic material which are fed into the kettle Ill wherein they are agitated by the blade 19 as heating takes place. A chunk of the material is indicated at Zil in FIGURES 5 and 6. In the preferred form of the invention a pair of feed chutes are employed, each having a bottom wall 21, top wall 22 and apair of side walls 23. These chutes are fixed in position with respect to the kettle and are shown as mounted on a plurality of angle members 24, including also the brace arm 25. These angle members extend from one end of the kettle to the other and serve to hold the feed chutes in stable position. The agitator shaft 14 passes through the side members 23 of the feed chutes and there are additional bearings 26 fixed on the outside of each of the side members 23.

For each feed chute there is a pair of collars 27 fixed on the shaft 14. An angular crushing blade 28 is fixed to each pair of collars 27. Also fixed to each pair of collars 27 is an abutment plate 29. There is also a back-up strip 35 extending from the blade 28, adjacent its working edge, to the collar 27.

As best seen in FIGURES l and 4, the crushing blade 28 is preferably provided with a pair of tapers. As shown 'in FIGURE 4, the blade 28 tapers downwardly toward the end ll of the tank or kettle 10. As shown in FIGURE 1, the blade 28 also tapers inwardly towards the shaft 14 and tank end 11. It has been determined that these tapers give a better crushing action; the blade thus meets the block along a substantially straight line.

There is a member 30 which defines the end of the floor 21 of the feed chute. It is preferred that the blade 28 does not pass extremely close to the end 3% of the chute floor 21. Thus, for example, it is preferred that the abutrnent plate 29, when in the position of FIGURE 5, be about 1 /2 inches from the end plate 3! while the blade 28, when in the position of FIGURE 6, is about A of an inch from this plate 30. A true shearing action is not desired; the blade 28 is designed to break up the material 20, not just shear it or cut it smoothly. The function of the blade is to repeatedlyknock off portions from the end of the chunks of material 20 as they come into position against the abutment plates 29. The back-up strip 35 pre vents material from wedging between the blade 28 and collar 27.

The operation of the breaking mechanism of this invention is as follows. Chunks of material 2d are placed on the floors ll of the feed chutes. These are slanted downwardly towards the center of the kettle so that they are at least in part gravity fed, although usually an operator attending the machine may aid in the feeding by pushing the chunks of material towards the shaft Id. When the shaft 14 is oscillated to the position shown in FIGURE 5, the material 20 will slide on the chute floor 21 until it engages the abutment plate 29. As the shaft 14 is then rotated in the opposite direction to the position of FIG- URE 6, the blade 2% will break off a piece of the material 20', as indicated at 20a. When the blade first contacts the material 20 it will pull it downwardly in the feed chute a slight amount Whereafter it will rock the chunk of material 20 about the end 3t! of the chute floor 21 until the chunk engages the top 22. Upon this happening further downward movement of the blade 28 knocks oil the end of the chunk of material 26. It will be understood that upon the shaft 14 being rotated from the position of FIGURE 6 to that of FIGURE 5, the chunk 20 will slide forward on the chute floor 21 until it again engages the abutment plate 29, whereafter another piece of material will be broken from the chunk in the manner described.

Patented Dec. 26, I961 It is to be understood that modifications may be made in this invention-Without departing from .its scope and spirit. It is to be further understood that although the invention has been described in connection with certain particular structures and arrangements, these structures and arrangements are not to be considered as limiting factors except insofar as they are specifically set forth in the subjoined claims.

Having thus described the invention, What is claimed as 'new and what is desired to be protected by United States floor; a horizontally disposed shaft mounted in said receptacle adjacent the lower end of said floor; means to oscillate said, shaft; a breaking blade fixed on said shaft and having a first position above the lower end of said floor and a second position below the lower end of said 'floor, said breaking blade being slightly spaced from the lower endof said floor in all positions, and said shaft being oscillatable between said first and second positions of said blade; and a substantially vertical abutment plate fixed on said shaft beneath said blade so that in the first position of said blade material in said chute will abut said plate, said plate oscillating with said blade and said shaft; whereby when said blade moves from said first position to said second position it will break off the material which abuts said plate, and when said blade returns to said first position additional material will abut said plate.

2. The mechanism of claim l'including a back-up strip extending from adjacent the rear edge of the breaking blade to'adjacent the top edge of said abutment plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 612,925 Hanger Oct. 25, 1898 1,794,181 Kosten Feb. 24, 1931 2,620,988 Tellier Dec. 9, 1952 

